Finding Spring
by Katy North
Summary: Fruits Basket cast take turns telling the story of the end of the curse. Focuses on Yuki and Kyo. Shonen-ai, KyoYuki. R&R Please!
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN FRUITS BASKET!!! Though I wish wish wish I owned Yuki, Kyo, and Haru... sighs...

R&R PLEASE!!!!!!! If you Review and give me some suggestions, you might see your suggestions in a later chapter !!!!

Please No flames unless it is constructive criticism. Yes, there might be shonen-ai (Kyoki, Haruki, and/or Shigure and Hari or Aya) later on, so if you don't stuff like that, don't read it. Finally, I haven't read any of the manga but the first vol., so this is entirely based on the anime tv series, and will probably remain that way. The only thing I'll include from the manga (because everyone seems to be talking about it, and it will work well for the story) is the extent of Kyo's curse.

CHAPTER I

The snow has started falling today. Soft and gentle as cherry blossoms it fell, coating the world in a crisp blanket like white linen.

It's times like this when I wished Honda-san could be enveloped with me under these blankets. I have the windows open. Some of the snow is blown inside, and the sharp, cold air is brushing my nose and cheeks with its fingertips.

I have my blanket wrapped around me. The only things showing are my eyes and nose. I'm huddled here, rodent that I am, poking my nose out of my nest.

The snow has always fascinated me, ever since I realized that it was the meaning of my name. I have always felt that the snow drags me into it. That the snow can form a blanket around me that will drive out the people around me who hurt me, but will easily give way to the people who want to know me. These people can brush the snow away from me, and see my protected self inside.

Hatori was disappointed with me. I remember when, back at the main house, I was curled up under a blanket on his sofa, watching it snow outside. I had been with Akito earlier that day, and Hatori had just finished checking me over, like he usually did after those visits. He gave me a hot cup of tea and a blanket to sit with on his couch. Back then his eye was still bandaged.

"Yuki?" He asked me. He leaned forward with his elbows resting on his knees, his dark hair flopping over his eyes. I was still shivering with the thought of Akito hovering over me, that weak smile on his lips. Akito would reach out, and touch my hair, pulling it away from my face with his cold and clammy hands. Hatori's gentle administrations had calmed me some, though, and his serious dark eyes staring into mine made me give a small half smile. "When the snow melts," Hatori asked, "what does it become?"

I stared out at the snow. It muffled the world, creating calm silence with each flake that fell. "Uncle Hari," I said, "I don't want the snow to melt."

He looked a little sad, but ruffled my hair so I would know that it was all right. "It's time you went home, Yuki, so you can sleep."

Snow makes me think of sleep. It seems to me that snow only falls at night, or when you have your eyes closed. You have to be very alert to catch it when it first falls

Hatori and I were silent as we walked, hand in hand to the doorway. I was allowed to act like a child sometimes, Uncle Hari had told me. I don't think he ever approved of what Akito did to me behind closed doors.

The wooden floor creaked as I put on my shoes and wrapped my scarf around my neck. Hatori dropped my hat onto my head. I don't know if I was supposed to hear what he said as I left.

"Yuki. I hope one day someone will be able to break open the cocoon

you have made for yourself."

The snow muffled my footsteps and a small white cloud formed on my lips as I walked outside, the white of the snow and the dark purple of the sky contrasting like a dream.

I began to shiver. The window had been open for too long. Lightly, I slid out of bed, and stuck my head out in the wind. My hair batted around my face, burning my cheeks red with cold. I regretfully looked out in the direction of my secret base, which had grown what Honda-san and I had planted last spring. It now laid, buried under a foot of snow.

That small sacrifice was a small price to pay to be surrounded by snow.


	2. Cold Lavender

Weee! I got two reviews. Thank you, my two fans, I hope that you like this chapter as well as the second one. It's told from Kyo-kun's POV, and is nice and melodramatic.

Once again, I do not own fruba, etc etc.

**LIGHT MOMENT**

**Yuki**: I feel depressed after the last chapter. Do you think this one will be a little happier?

**Kyo**: Are we really THAT happy, you stupid rat?

**Yuki**: I guess not... Though Tohru makes me smile.

**Kyo**: Well, maybe things will BE happy when she comes into the story.

**Yuki**: I don't know... after all, she is also finding spring...

(_Kyo rolls his eyes_)

**Yuki**: STUPID CAT!!

BIFF BASH BAT SMASH

**Kyo** (_Waddling around in body cast_): HEY, THAT HURT!! I DIDN'T EVEN PISS YOU OFF THAT TIME EITHER!!!!

**Yuki**: That was to make people laugh, Kyo. We can't have them going away being too depressed...

**Kyo**: Since when did me being beat into a pulp make people laugh??!!

**Author**: LMAO

**Kyo**: SHUDDUP!!!!

**Author**: Ahem. And now back to our regularly scheduled programming

**CHAPTER 2: COLD LAVENDER**

I've been watching the snow collect on the windowsill for the past few days. It doesn't make me as tired as rain does, but still, it makes me want to shake something off of me. It's like the cold clings to my neck or something.

I'ts stopped snowing now, though, and a patch of sunlight has drifted onto the floor of my room. Standing in it, I fee like it's hot outside. Sweat is collecting on my upper lip as I punch, kick, stretch my vertebrae like an accordion, and twist sharply on one leg, hooking it behind me.

I practice a lot, and though my practicing usually starts off with, "I want to win against that damn Yuki", usually it doesn't end up like that. I end up closing my eyes, and feeling my body flow without restraints. I feel more alive then, more fluid than when I'm actually fighting. I mean, it makes me feel free. I'm gonna be so cramped up in a couple of years. I gotta stretch out while I can.

It's funny, though. Even with snow on the ground it doesn't feel cold. Probably because I always move enough to keep relatively warm. I mean, even when I'm studying, I have to move about and stretch.

Even that's not it though. To me, cold isn't a feeling, it's a smell. Cold smells like lavender.

I hate lavender.

When I was a kid, Akito asked me to visit him so we could play. No one had really asked me to play with them before, except for Hatsuharu, and that was probably only because he lost his way going somewhere else.

My mom checked my beads at least 20 times before she let me leave, carrying a basket of freshly baked rolls for Akito.

Akito was already a big thing to me. He sat at the head of the table, and they lit a bonfire behind him every year before Hatori herded me out of the room, as was tradition. I remember that when I first saw him at the banquet, I thought that his hair was the same color as mine because of the flames.

"I have a present for you, Kyo."

"Really?" My eyes grew large. I had already learnt that thought the rest of my family got presents from each other sometimes, I never did. I was still pretty stupid back then, and never suspected that a present from Akito didn't mean something happy.

Akito took my hand. It was spring, and the gardeners had planted lavender all along the walls of the Sohma property. It was still early morning, Akito's burgundy robe was dark around the hem from the dew of the grass. He grabbed the wrist with the beads, squeezing them against my flesh, pinching my skin. When I yelped, he let go. He waved his hands around at the houses grouped around Sohma house. "Those all belong to the creatures of the zodiac and their families."

I looked at them indifferently. I had seen those houses before. "And back here," he pointed to a small shack that had a what looked like an aviary made out of bamboo bars in the back, "Is where you are going to live".

"Wow!" I was excited. To me, it looked like a secret fort. I ran through the front door, and looked with awe at the small bed with a scrap of cloth for a blanket. "All of this is mine?"

"Yes."

"This is so cool!" I ran out the back and into the aviary, climbing on the bars, and pretending I was in my other form, trying to break out of the bars. After scuffling around in the dirt, I came back into the other room, and smiled up at Akito. "Thank you!"

I walked outside to get a look at the aviary from the outside, and Akito wrenched my arm behind my back, and pressed his thin, pale face into mine. "I don't think you understand, Kyo-kun. In a few years, this is going to be your home forever and ever. You'll never see your mother again. You'll never see Hatsuharu or me again. You'll never go outside. It will be like you're a pet in a zoo, Kyo-kun. You're other form will be so frightening that no one will want to come near you, except to give you food."

He let go of my arm, and pushed me so I fell on my face. My hands stung as I put them out to catch my fall. I scrambled up and walked backwards as he advanced on me. My lip was trembling, and he reached out and slipped off my beads, holding them, dangling in front of my nose. As he did this, I stepped back into a patch of lavender. There was a wet crunch, and the sickly sweet smell permeated my nostrils.

"Do you know who Yuki is?"

"I had a vague notion of him. I remembered seeing him sitting in the window of his house, and had thought he was shaped just like a doll that I could play with.

"He's the rat. You're the cat. He is the reason why you're going to be trapped in that cage, forever and ever and ever."

I wrenched away from him, and started to run away through the bed of lavender. With each step I crushed more lavender; it smelt so sick and sweet and cold, I felt that I would pass out from it before I reached my house.

I put on my clothes, and walk downstairs. Tohru-kun's making dinner, and the winter snow outside seems warm. I'll sit at the table, drink milk, and keep one eye on the clock. When you watch the clock, time stands still, and I like to drag my time out for as long as possible. Only two more years and then I will be buried in cold.


	3. Thawing Ice

Disclaimer: Yet again, I don't own fruits basket. Though I do own a basket with fruit in it.

It's Yuki's turn!!! Yay!!! Btw, despite appearances, more Fruba characters will be making their debute soon enough. Next time I'm going to let Tohru have her say, for example.

Finally putting in some shonen-ai, though it's definetally not heavy. Don't like it don't read. It's established, this is going to be a Kyoki.

**HUMEROUS INTERLUDE:**

**Shigure**: Oh where has my beautiful blooming flower gone??

(_Yuki and Kyo glare at him_)

**Yuki**: Who do you mean?

**Shigure**: Why Tohru of course.

**Tohru**: Shigure? Did you just say my name?

(_Shigure grabs Tohru by the arm_)

**Shigure**: You two boys are getting all the attention. Where oh where has my beautiful blooming flower gone in this story?

(_Tohru squeals and turns various shades of red_.)

**Yuki**: Well, she won't be in this chapter.

**Shigure**: Oh, really?

**Yuki**: Yeah. (Looks at Kyo, who is ignoring him and looks like a kettle about to boil over) I love Tohru, but some things are more important...

**Kyo**: (suddenly cooling off) What... ?

CHAPTER 3: Thawing Ice 

When I wander downstairs, something draws me to you first.

Maybe it's because you don't move away anymore. You're used to my soft groan, and the way my neck droops so that my forehead rests on your shoulder. Maybe it's because your body heat draws me to you.

Heat that promises to someday melt snow.

Do you mind it that much when my hair brushes your clenched neck? Do you mind it when I rub my nose into your shoulder? I hear you mutter, awww, hell, not this again, but it's gentle. And sometimes your face flushes red.

Tohru and Shigure are warm too, and sometimes I collapse on them, but everything about you burns. Sometimes I notice that when you move your head, your hair flutters like flames, and your eyes glow like embers.

When I fight you, I notice other things. Like even though you rush into me like a bull into red, you are graceful. Lithe muscles, smooth turns, determined eyes. Sometimes, when I'm punching you, I have to stop myself from caressing you. And when I dive in, so my nose is almost touching yours, the color of your cheeks heightens, before I throw you through Shigure's door.

Sometimes I ask myself, would you catch me if were to slip off your shoulder someday when I'm like this, barely awake, breathing in your warm scent, resting on your shoulder. Would you even reach out in concern?

A stupid question to ask... but then I ask a lot of stupid questions. For example:

Does Tohru ever feel ashamed of having a group of monsters like us for friends?

If Akito disappeared, would the pain of the curse still be here?

Where is my mother? And why didn't my father ever call me once I left Sohma house?

Have my brother and Shigure ever kissed?

What does it really mean to be the rat? Am I really privileged?

And sometimes, I just think about Akito. I feel those pale, thin fingers trail down my face, leaving what feels like streaks of frost on my face. I feel his lips softly touch mine and turn them blue. I feel the cold silk of his robe slip over me, and the sharp, cold points of his fingernails dig into my flesh.

I guess I'm obsessed with Akito somehow. I fall asleep with his black eyes burning into me; I wake up imagining that he is hovering over me. Sometimes at school, I catch a glace of another student, and think that his hair falls over his eyes just like Akito, or I see a girl lean against a locker just like Akito leans against the walls.

That's why I'm a prince. That's why I'm cool to everyone around me, though as polite as is humanly possible. What if Akito caught me acting like the real me at school? I mean, I only really act normal when I'm with him.

It's true. Akito freezes me at first with his touch, and then goads me into resistance. He likes it when I resist him, but only when he's there to see it, and only when he can slap me down into the coldness of submission again.

But it's better to have a moment of release than nothing.

I actually look forward to seeing Akito, in a way. Thinking about wanting to see him sends me into an attack, though. Being with Akito is like him telling me to breathe while he sits on my chest. The breath rasps in my throat and catches before it is released.

That's another reason to like snow, now that I think about it. I can always tell when I'm breathing or when I'm not.

But when I feel your burning, Kyo, I burn along with you. For that brief second, I see myself as a reflection of you.


	4. Dark Flower

**DISCLAIMER**: Fruits Basket is not mine! (But I do have a very cute shirt with Yuki on it…)

**Author**: Gee, it's been a while. But I remembered this fanfic from a year ago! And I like it so much I'm writing more!

**Tohru**: Wow, that's so great!

**Kyo and Yuki**: Does that mean we actually have to sit through MORE of this?

_Dark Flower_

You're here next to me, clinging to my kimono again. I remember when you used to wet it every night with your tears, wondering if all of this was okay. I brush hair away from your face, and it falls away like a fragile cobweb. Gently, I place my arm around you, my heartbeat quickens at the warmth of your body, and the softness of your skin, and the way you nuzzle into me.

I change.

Four legs, a cold wet nose, and a tail beating gently against your leg. Sometimes you call me "Uncle" to distance yourself from me. But I know better.

It started out when you would tell me your problems. You thought they were problems at least. You thought your mind was tearing apart, and you thought you were an angel because you just couldn't understand what was going on around you. You told me that at night, you would try and pluck your wings.

I laughed at you. I don't know how to do anything else, really. Sometimes when I laugh a lot, and when I laugh really hard, I feel like I'm crying. But, laughing or not, I pushed you back to your room, and you looked at me the same way the next morning. The following night you did the same thing, and we sat together for a long while, you crying, I laughing. Finally I reached out, because I felt that the laughing in my stomach was disappearing. I touched you and I changed.

"This is the great irony, Tohru-chan. Whenever I reach out to comfort you is the moment that I also turn into a complete and utter animal."

The connotations made you laugh through your tears. But when I changed, you kept holding me. You felt my muscles contort, fur sprout, nose elongate. And, you even gathered me closer.

Tohru, you are a dark little flower. And the darkest part about you is that you lie about your happiness with Kyo and Yuki. There is an unspoken agreement in the way you act around them that you will marry one of them. But you know that in the end they live only for the fight. And you, my little Tohru, can come quietly into my bed, and hold your dog close. He will prowl and search for bitches in the daylight. But at night, his dark flower will always hold him. When I hold you, I change into something perfect. Though our love is not consummated, it is far from childish. You make me married.


End file.
